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So, my head is clearly spinning, and so are developers'. "The most popular application categories for developers," according to the company, "are gaming (14 percent), followed by music and video (12 percent), art and design (11 percent), science and medicine (8 percent), robotics (6 percent), Web & social (6 percent), and education (4 percent). [and] More than 90 percent of developers want to sell their applications through the Leap Motion store."

Two of the areas that seem most promising to me, in terms of cultural impact, are the performance of electronic music and the real-time production of animation. I asked Buckwald if there are a lot of people working on DJ/music mashup software, and he replied, "We have had a lot of really interesting applications related to music. We’ve had many DJ apps proposed, as well as creating and playing virtual instruments. We think the arts community is going to make some amazingly cool applications for the Leap, and we’re excited to see how 3-D motion control can push music/the art of DJ in new directions." Heads up, all you dubsteppers hunched over your laptops!

On the animation front, I asked my old friend Luke Jaeger what he was hearing in that community. "The Leap motion sensor is burning up all the animation-related mailing lists I subscribe to," reported Jaeger. "The traditional stop-motion animators are very excited about being able to work with their hands again (and the

CG modelers are looking forward to working with their hands for the first time). It opens up lots of cool possibilities." And, indeed, Buckwald confirms they have had "a number of proposals involving both stop motion and CGI animation."

The means to create digital experiences keep getting greater and more available. This puts a premium on prototyping and visualization, since it is the subtleties of how these experiences actually work for users that will determine which technologies and content types take off and which get passed over. In all fields, the kind of direct manipulation offerd by the Leap will make for better, faster and more responsive product development loops.

Brightcove's Allaire wrote yesterday, "As the role of software in society continues its inexorable expansion, it is an amazing and inspiring time to be a developer. Never before have so many powerful tools and technologies been so accessible and affordable… All of these shifts continue to drive a deepening fusion between media (content) and software."

Into this fusion, the fine-detail of the hand and gestural body is about to enter, and it is the developers, and innovative platform makers like Leap Motion, who will take us there.